BEIJING: The US on Saturday described its deepening ties with India as "one of the defining partnerships" of the 21st century, but underlined that it was not at the 'expense' of China. "First of all, the United States considers (the ties with) India to be probably one of the defining partnerships for us in the 21st Century," Robert O. Blake, US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, told the media here after his talks with Chinese officials.

Blake said president Barack Obama's announcement extending US support for India's candidacy as a permanent member of UN Security Council "reflects our sense that India is first of all going to be a very important partner for the United States going forward, but also is a very constructive force in the world".

"Things like non-proliferation, climate change, and we re very pleased that India is working closely with us in such areas as Afghanistan, helping to address poverty in Africa, and issues such as that," he replied when asked on the deepening Indo-US ties.

Refuting perception that US is using India as a "hedge" against China, Blake said: "We support growing relations between India and China and we have reassured our friends in China that growing relations between the US and India will not come at China's expense, and that we want to see the growth of our relations with China, our relations with India, and India's relations with China." Blake said US is having "sub dialogues" with China on issues concerning South Asia.

For the first time, he held a sub-dialogue on Central Asia with Chinese officials.

The top US diplomat asked China to play more active role in stabilising Afghanistan and Pakistan, as "there are groups that are based in Pakistan that are threatening China as well as US and we talked about that today". "China agrees that the international community needs to do all it can to help both Pakistan and Afghanistan to deal with their many challenges. China has done a lot but we would welcome whatever else it can do to help because it does play such an important role in the region," Blake said.

I wouldn't jump to any major conclusions - Palin hardly mentioned china, and she is never one to be counted on regarding US foreign policy (lol). The US want to keep both India and China happy after all.

I wouldn't jump to any major conclusions - Palin hardly mentioned china, and she is never one to be counted on regarding US foreign policy (lol). The US want to keep both India and China happy after all.

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USA will be happy as long as India and China keep fighting each other. Indo-US partnership is based on the assumption that India will keep China engaged, to give Taiwan and Japan some breathing space. USA also expects that India will also keep Chinese influence in check in Africa and South-East Asia to certain extent, with a bit of help.

Palin is a well known idiot. i dont know why anyone still take her seriously.

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There are many known and unknown idiots who should be avoided by the people . sometimes people dont even realize that what they are listening to are words of an Idiot . so Idiots are part of our life and we can love them or hate them but we have to live with them.

USA will be happy as long as India and China keep fighting each other. Indo-US partnership is based on the assumption that India will keep China engaged, to give Taiwan and Japan some breathing space. USA also expects that India will also keep Chinese influence in check in Africa and South-East Asia to certain extent, with a bit of help.

For USA India is to China what Pakistan is to India.

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Hopefully it goes a bit beyond that! XD

Whilst I agree that the US is taking full advantage of the situation and try and play India off with China, part of it is also due to the US thinking it can pull India more away from the Russian-camp to the US-camp... whilst there are tremendous gains from a closer relationship with the US, we shouldn't become their b*tch to do so.

Palin is a well known idiot. i dont know why anyone still take her seriously.

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Unfortunately that crazy lady has the ability to become a major player in US politics - look at the huge kick effect Mc Cain's election hopes got when he brought Palin in to his Administeration. It wouldn't have been such a close election if it wasn't for Palin.

Unfortunately that crazy lady has the ability to become a major player in US politics - look at the huge kick effect Mc Cain's election hopes got when he brought Palin in to his Administeration. It wouldn't have been such a close election if it wasn't for Palin.

Though Palin is a gaffe showpiece item girl of US politics yet India has no durable value for US. UPA govt. is just puppet guinea pig to experiment with in asian politics, therefore India can be sacrificed by US MEA for the sake of it's lager strategic plan & business in asia. In addition, US MEA does not have much trust on India as whole. The recent ILU ILU between India & US is just for time being & a kind of one nightstand business( defence deals).